How to behave in Britain : co-presencing Anglo-American forces in the Second World War

How did the Anglosphere develop through wartime? This paper investigates the cultural educative practices and interactions between the US military and British society during the US deployments to Britain from 1942 to 1945. Specifically, it examines a 1943 training film for the US Armed forces, How to Behave in Britain (aka Welcome to Britain ). The film was part of a broader outreach by US and British officials to socialise American soldiers to British society. Utilising ontological security and vicarious identity, as seen through the referents of race, gender/sex and political economy, the film and the broader setting of American troops stationed in Britain illustrates the crucial role of everyday routines for enacting the ontological securities of allies that, nevertheless, in a clash of manners and customs, created ontological insecurities at the same time. This paper suggests that the moral valence of routines for agents and groups may be better understood via the concepts of manners and customs. Thus a working through of tensions within the Anglosphere has implications for its development in the twenty-first century as well.

Russia’s stance on the Israel–Iran war and its declining influence in the Middle East

The June 2025 Israel–Iran War inflamed tensions in the Middle East and risked not only escalating the regional situation but also drawing in the key outsiders. Given its growing military, political, economic, and other ties with the Islamic Republic, the Russian Federation appeared to have much to lose from the conflict. In the event of Tehran's heavy defeat and a possible change of government, Moscow would have been deprived of another important Middle Eastern ally, after Syria. Despite this, Russia’s assistance to Tehran appeared to be limited to mere rhetorical and diplomatic support. While surprising, Putin’s decision confirms two trends. First, in the post-Ukraine war period, Russia’s resources and focus are fully committed closer to home, and its ability to shape events in the Middle East has declined. Second, Putin still seeks to preserve some vestiges of his longstanding regional policy of maintaining working relations with all regional players, even at the cost of disappointing allies.

China–Swiss relations during the Cold War, 1949–1989: between soft power and propaganda by Cyril Cordoba, Routledge, 2022, 274 pp., £104.00 (hardback), £31.19 (eBook)

‘The Truth of Battleship Island’: Memory Activism over Wartime Forced Labour in Japan

East Asian conflict over historical memories is often viewed as a product of clashing nationalisms, not only at the formal state level but also through the involvement of non-state actors and narratives. This article examines the memory activism of the National Congress of Industrial Heritage regarding Japan’s use of Korean forced labourers during World War II. It suggests that transnational and local elements, as well as nationalism, have played a role in the group’s revisionist memory work that negates Korean memories of forced labour on Hashima Island. While it is tempting to dismiss such a group as aggressive nationalists and deniers of history, a close look at the internal structure of its ideology reveals increasingly sophisticated politics of articulation that incorporate different elements into its ideology. Particular attention is paid to the construction of locally based counter-memories and engagement with contemporary global memory culture to add affective force to their political agenda. This study also highlights a relatively under-explored type of memory activism, which aims to generally support, rather than challenge, official state causes and narratives.

“I knew I was not going to get fired … I know what the line is”: How HPE Faculty Support Trainees’ War Against Social Harm and Injustice

Introduction: Trainees are adept at locating social harm and injustice in medical education. One of the ways in which they work for change is through ongoing acts of professional resistance. However, knowing how, when, and where to resist requires some institutional knowledge. Previous research shows that trainees garner clandestine support from faculty members who share similar values and interests. These faculty work in the shadows, assisting trainees to meet their goals of destabilizing harmful systems and structures in medical education, yet little is known about the role these faculty play. This study was designed to explore the kinds of support faculty provide, the role they play in supporting resistance efforts, and how faculty ensure their own safety. Methods: We used methodological bricolage to guide both data collection and analysis. We recruited 24 faculty from a variety of health professions and interviewed them on when they would/would not support trainees in their resistance efforts. Participants came from 12 different medical education institutions across four geographic regions of the U.S., along with one Canadian medical school. As the data came in, it was transcribed and analyzed using open coding, at which point we noticed that participants framed their roles using constructs found in the literature. Rather than continuing to open code, we refined our analysis using a deductive coding approach in which we drew on the concepts of supporters and auxiliary staff, cultural brokers, and tempered radicals. Through constant comparison, we identified patterns across participants in the roles they played and the kind of support they offered. Results: As trainees fight a metaphorical war against social harm and injustice in medical education, faculty play several key roles in supporting trainees. They protect the integrity of the institution and ensure trainees’ efforts are not disruptive to the institution’s function. They contextualize trainees’ efforts within institutional goals. They also mediate relationships between students and institutional leadership. While helping to keep themselves, trainees, and institution safe, they reinforce the importance of being a life-long resistor against social harm and injustice to continue this work. Discussion: Efforts at changing health professions education is not new; each generation gives rise to trainees who cannot bear to experience or witness the harm and injustice present in the profession’s educational and training programs and must work to change it. However, what appears to be new is that faculty are deeply engaged in this process of transformation, working alongside trainees. Given their role in the institution, they serve as the strategist in fighting this war, providing big picture opportunities and risk assessments for trainees to consider. Whereas trainees serve as the tacticians doing the work on the ground, faculty provide critical support toward the transformation of medical education.

Widespread Religious and Spiritual Change Due to War: A Terror Management Perspective

This study investigated the impact of war on personal religiosity and spirituality (R/S). From a Terror Management Theory perspective, mortality awareness might lead individuals to seek existential security not only by endorsing R/S, but also by adhering to cultural norms. Therefore, we expected that war would drive widespread R/S change, but the extent to which individuals increase or decrease R/S would depend on the culturally normative nature of R/S. We relied on data from 1,278 Jewish-Israeli students collected during the ongoing 2023–2025 Israel-Gaza war. Approximately half of the sample reported some change, with increases in R/S being more prevalent than decreases. However, this pattern varied by religious group affiliation and was especially true in contexts where R/S is more normative. Considering the culturally normative nature of R/S and both increases and decreases in R/S is important to contributing a fuller account of R/S change in the face of protracted stress.

Wordsworth(ians) on War Wordsworth’s Trauma and Poetry 1793–1803, by Richard E. Matlak, New York and London, Routledge, 2024, x + 167 pp., 7 illustrations.

Operation Inherent Resolve and “Exposing the True Nature” of the Islamic State

The aim here is to consider the implications of the counter-ideological struggle against the Islamic State. While most other studies have looked at the other elements of Operation Inherent Resolve – specifically its military, counter-recruitment, financial and humanitarian initiatives – here the focus is on its Line of Effort Five; the attempt to expose its “true nature” through a sustained program of “ideological de-legitimization.” It firstly sets out the institutional structures through which this took place before, secondly, going on to analyze the discursive content of the strategic messaging that was disseminated. The overall argument put forward is that, in continuing the tendency to define the ideational basis of al-Qaeda’s violence in terms of what it is not, Line of Effort Five largely maintained the War on Terror’s established tropes of evilness, wantonness and inhumanity, thereby reinforcing the idea that miliary force could be the only possible recourse.

Influences of Islamist Radicalization: A Configurational Analysis of Balkan Foreign Fighters in Syria

Recent research on Islamist radicalization has directed greater attention to the conjunctions of causes and staged processes that draw individuals into violent extremism. Yet research is still grappling with the varying extents of individual action and external factors, including social networks, peer pressure, propaganda, cultural and socio-economic conditions, on radicalization processes. At bottom, this investigation revolves around the context in which individuals live and the influences acting upon them. Identifying patterns of these conditions is essential to understanding how individuals come to engage in violent extremism. This article presents a configurational analysis of foreign fighters that travelled to fight in the Syrian War. The paper presents data gathered from interviews, security and judicial records, and secondary sources on individuals from the Western Balkans (predominantly Bosnia and Herzegovina) that joined Islamist groups in the Syrian War. Individuals’ relationship with longstanding Balkan radical milieus and with key Islamist preachers were coded. Using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) techniques, we present a systematic description of characteristics of foreign fighters.

The Other Dark Side of Pro-Government Militias: Deterring Nonviolent Action and Spoiling Prospects for Peace During Civil Wars

Militias are violent actors, shown to be self-serving, and to consistently act as spoilers of peace. So far, research has focused on their use of instrumental violence to directly undermine peace talks. Yet, militias have alternative, more indirect ways to act as spoilers of peace. As such, we seek to explore whether militias spoil peace by preventing nonviolent resistance (NVR) events, which have previously been associated with an increased likelihood of peace deals. Specifically, we argue that pro-government militias (PGMs) deter and prevent NVR events with the threat of violence when governments offer concessions to rebel groups in efforts to maintain a profitable status quo. We extend previous panel data sources covering the African continent in the time period 1997-2014 to show evidence of these relationships. This paper contributes to research showing the negative effects of PGMs and offers policy implications for civil society in conflict zones and peace prospects.